I had discussions with amitava1969 da and Soumya as of now and what I see is the train from Sealdah starts at 8:04AM and reaches Katwa around 11:50AM. Purbasthali may be reached by 11:20 or 11:30AM , provided it halts there(which will find out any way). Now the break route which earlier was suggested by Subhadeep may land us at purbasthali as early as by 10AM provided every train in the break journey is boarded on time without fail and the trains themselves do not add any delay in the process going forward. But that is something we cannot control. Now, if the group coming from south viz.

MeAmitava1969RajanLagnajitSoumyaCan make it to sealdah by 6AM without fail, the break journey sounds promising, though it involves bit of a trouble as none of us in that group has ever taken that route before. Which is why it also involves risks like catching a wrong train in hurry etc. If such cases happen then hypoyhetically we may reach purbasthali even later than the direct train from sealdah promises by 11:30AM(?).

So, overall, the breakup journey route saves us 1.5 hours when the first train is supposed to be boarded 2 hrs prior to the direct train from Sealdah. So we (the south group) would rather prefer the direct train from sealdah at 8:04AM to Purbasthali.

The other groups may follow the break route as imo it will be easier to all of them as they dont have to backtrack to sealdah.

This will be absolutely fine imo as we discussed earlier our meeting place should be purbasthali.

The team reaching earlier can start accessing places like local fish market etc..for additional species info by that time.

Thanks & Regards..

Sourav..."If you want to do something in a better way, do it yourself !" --Nepoleon Bonaparte